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straight days, our reporters have been covering Iowa. Before we show you a day in the life of our newsroom in 2025, we'll let Connie McBurney show you a day at ����vlog, as it aired in 1980. Good evening. Just over 20 years ago, those twice nightly newscasts we all take for granted didn't even exist. The first regularly scheduled newscast was on CBS in August of 1948, titled Douglas Edwards with the news. It lasted 15 minutes and was little more than an announcement of the headlines. > > <TV news has, in fact, covered nearly every subject but itself.So this is a look at the side of the news you don't usually see one day with the people at TV 8 who assemble the newscasts. > > <Good morning. This is the morning television, ����vlog, TV, channel eight, in Des Moines, Iowa. Now signing on the air. > > <There are no buzzers, horns, or bells to signal the beginning of another news day at TV 8. But like always, Bill Johnson and George Wiley are the earliest to arrive. <Others, like Brooks Humphries, arrive around 9:30. By mid-morning, the news machine is running on all cylinders, with assignment editor Mike Reynolds calling the shots. <12 reporters will work alongside four photographers, covering everything from Vice President Mondale's visit to a fatal accident on southeast 14th. The news staff will report, film, edit and produce 13 stories for tonight's 6 p.m. newscast. You have to know what's important to your city and to your area. In this case, it's Des Moines and it's central Iowa > > <Almo Hawkins and Michelle Morrissey Burgad are sent immediately to the airport to cover the vice president's arrival. With the advent of ENG, that's electronic news gathering. Most TV photographers now use videotape cameras. That means more cables, batteries and other equipment compared to a film camera. I I would like for cameras to be more light sensitive, so we don't have to drag so much gear. > > <During the noon hour, the unexpected and the tragic do occur. George Wiley and Mark Swanson rushed out the door for probably the least favorite assignment - a fatal accident. This one on southeast 14th. Set him down there 21. > > <Today we had a traffic accident during the day. And something like that happening at any time, and you have to go out on it. It and you have to go out on it. It just leaves you with a very, very bad feeling about the whole day. > > <The next hour in the newsroom will be busier than the previous eight combined. Most are working on stories will air at 6 p.m., but Kevin Cooney he is editing a covering Iowa film story that will be used at a later date. My My particular stories, for the most part, on covering Iowa, deal primarily with the human interest. The, the man with the collection of 500 violins or the, the man with the, bowling alley in his barn. > > < II would II would say like, like numerous other Iowa farmers. You know. They elected to hold their grain. <Enter Doug Cretsinger, director for the six and 10:00 news. During this time period, Doug is busy marking scripts and consulting with Paul Rhoads. Meanwhile, in the editing room, photographers and reporters are still working on three stories. And I And I have very, very. Little time to work on. It will serve to make the story easier to understand, because I don't have time to sit around and agonize over whether to use this word or that word. > > <Co-anchor Rick Frederickson now enters, and he and Paul make last-minute preparations for the <When all the stories have been written, all the different film edited the script in the newscast or in the hands of news production director Doug Cretsinger. His job is to put it all together. > > <The first peak of my day is 6:00. The second peak is 10:00. And then, you know, it builds up to those two times and I get used to it after a while. I've been doing a long time.> <It's 6 o'clock. . . Paul will throw us Victor five sound. Ready to wipe, camera 2. Ready rose. > > <Connie, Rick and Pete, thank you for joining us. Next news tonight at ten. Be with us. And Russ. > > <Now the whole process begins all over again in the hands of a late shift after an early dinner, Russ Van Dyke joins the staff. He has already been here most of the afternoon, working on his weekly special report. Now, he and Rick Fredrickson have three hours to cover evening news stories and get ready for the 10 p.m. newscast. > > < The big problem The big problem at 10:00, is that we've got to cover the world. At 6:00, Paul Rhoades and the rest of the news team cover Iowa because it follows Walter Cronkite. So we have to get everything in, 30 minutes, including the weather and the sports. So, it's really tough to cut it down. <And if everything seems to happen almost without effort. It's only because everyone depends upon everyone else, and everyone does his job. Considering that every newscast is live and unrehearsed, that's a lot of cooperation. And it happens in hundreds of stations very much like this one seven days a week all over the country. And as they say, we do it all for you. > > That was 45 years ago. Today, as Beau Bowman shows us, the goal is exactly the same. Even though the technology is very different. <ambient nat. wide shot of the station, car drives by. CUT to tighter shot of ����vlog sign> <5986 Laura 9:23:06-07 "Good morning!"> 9:37:23-24"Alright here's what we have going on today."> But from the got Tyler floating..."> There's no telling the direction the day could take us. <6056 Heckle 13:23:59- 03"I think the morning <6056 Heckle 13:18:05- 08"My name is Michael Heckel. I'm the assignment manager here at ����vlog."> <6009 nat Heckle typing on keyboard> <6056 Heckle 13:24:43- 48"That morning editorial meeting, it needs to be where we figure out, okay, what are the stories of the day"> <5997 Rivas 9:32:27- 30"Flash flood warning is still in effect until 10:15 "> <5997 Rivas 9:32:54- 01"In fact, walnut creek in Des Moines at 63rd Street is expected to hit moderate stage "> <6056 Heckle 13:24:51- 55"what are people going to remember about this day, five, ten years down the road?"> <6005 Todd 9:39:32- 36"But it's the deep as I've seen it for the last couple years."> <6011 Shannon 10:00:16-17"Todd you pitched flooding, you want to do flooding?"> Once reporter assignments are handed down.. <6013 nat of people walking out of meeting-- keep shot rolling> The crews start their game plan. <6013 Todd 10:02:24- 25"Yeah Where do you want to go?"> <nat of cortney packing up tvu case> Each story presents its own challenges. <6016 Cortney 10:04:52-56"I'm going to guess we're going to be live at noon, 4, 5, and 6. "> <6018 Cortney 10:06:16-22"The problem with flash flooding, is that it's flash flooding and it's gone by time we get there. So..." Cortney laughs and walks away.> <6027 nat of Cortney walking out> <6028 nat of Cortney getting in the car and slamming the door > <6028 nat of car leaving the garage> <6029 nat of them arriving at the park> <6031 Todd 10:40:51- 53"The story today is about flooding."> <6031 Todd 10:40:34- 40"I'm Todd Magel and I have been at ����vlog since January of 1983 <6031 Todd 10:41:38- 55"So my job is to sort of find out who we need to talk to, where we need to go, what we need to take pictures of, what the story is and make sure we get it wrapped up into a tight little bundle at the end of the day so we can do what we call a package on so that's the eventual story "> <6033 10:49:48-51 CORTNEY: "Contact." TODD: "Okay first lets get the right name and spelling for you."> Interviews with officials to give us the facts... <6034 Todd 10:50:53- 56"So right now, how would you sort of describe the level and are we in any danger at this point?"> ..and video used to fill out the story. <6038 Cortney 10:58:58-00"Just need to shoot some B-Roll"> But the hardest part of the news gathering process can also be the most important. <6044 Todd 11:07:29- 36"Would you mind if we asked you a question about the trail? No. Okay, thank you, have a good day." Todd walks back toward Cortney.> <6045 11:07:58- 11"MOS stands for man on the street. Which is kind of an old fashioned term. But basically it's a way for us to interview people that are real. Not officials, or police officers, it's like people who are affected by the news."> <6045 11:10:03-06 TODD: "And hopefully it won't be closed for too long." DUDE: "I doubt it will be long."> <6048 nat of Cortney pulling wagon> At noon-- it's time to bring the whole thing together... <6049 Cortney 11:56:28-30"We've got 4 minutes until our live shot"> on LIVE TV. <6069 Amanda V 10:58:08-09"About 30 out now"> <6051 Todd 11:58:28-"30 seconds!"> The communication is constant. <6069 Amanda V 10:59:38-39"Standby for boxes."> <6051 Todd 11:58:51- 52"Standby!"> <6069 Amanda V 15"Yeah Jodi it's been a while since we covered flooding here in Central"> <TODD NOON HIT 0:04-13"Iowa and we got plenty of it this morning. take a look behind me. We're just next to I-235, in Windsor Heights Colby Park is right next door to us."> <6051 Todd 12:01:57- 03"Very often we stand in front of an empty building at night and nothing is happening and today we've got the creek full, we've got water bubbling up."> <6051 Todd 12:01:52- 56"The whole idea of a live shot is to show you what's happening LIVE."> <cut to clip 6051 Todd 12:00:33-41"In fact it's not just... ope .. we're going to have to step away here sorry. We've got crews coming through from the city of windsor heights."> And when the trucks roll through the frame... you have no choice but to roll with 'em. <6069 Amanda V 11:00:25-29"Well that's live TV right there." laughs <6051 Todd 12:01:31- 35"We're live in Windsor Heights Todd Magel ����vlog 8 News Iowa's News Leader."> <6069 Amanda V 11:01:21-23"Thanks you're clear, what an active live shot! Way to go."> <6051 12:01:40-43 Todd gives a thumbs up and laughs. CORTNEY: "That couldn't have worked out any better!"> <fade to black and hold for a sec or two> <6052 12:59:55-07 garage door opens > Back at the ranch.. the news crews are returning from their shoots... <6052 Glen 13:00:49-51 "I'll load it as soon as we get upstairs."> just in time for lunch... <6053 Nicole 13:04:31- 32"Would you like some?"> And to edit the video for their stories. <6053 Glen 13:06:11- 19"So now I have to take my card and load it into the computer. "> <6068 Nicole 14:15:03- 06"This is one of the treatment plants servicing the city."> Once video editing extraordinaire Glen Biermann has his reporter's voice track-- <6068 Nicole 14:15:39- 43"That means following an odd/even house number schedule for lawn watering"> ..his keyboard becomes a piano-- <nat keyboard clicking> playing the perfect notes needed to piece together the story they shot just an hour ago. <nat sequence of glen editing> <6105 Glen 16:16:40- 46"In order to send it to the show, I have to hit one button. F4 and OK."> <6105 Glen 16:17:13- 15"And shazam it's done."> It's up to this bullpen-- full of producers-- to decide where in the show, each story will air. <6066 KLT 14:09:40- 49"Right now I have my entire newscast stacked, ordered the way that I want it. Making sure it makes sense not only for our anchors but for the viewers."> <6066 KLT 14:09:10- 13"So my name is <6066 KLT 14:09:20- 21"I am the 5:00 producer."> <6066 KLT 14:10:09- 25"I think the biggest thing is that it takes a lot of time to put it together. You're watching it as a viewer and it's 30 minutes out of your day that come and go just like that. Whereas as the producer it's taking me almost 7 hours, 8 hours to put everything that you see on the screen together."> <6089 Laura and Jodi 15:07:22-28 JODI: "I feel like our framing is weird-- I'm like against this." BEAU: "be natural" Laura makes a funny face.> Kaitlyn's show is read by anchors Laura Terrell and Jodi Long. <6089 Laura 15:09:23- 28"We get ready for the 5:00 newscast together we kind of go through the rundown. And we get ready for the news."> <6089 15:09:58-21 JODI: "We can relate a lot of what goes on not on camera so that's really helpful for when it is showtime it's like okay.. we just have a good understanding of one another so it makes coming to work really easy." LAURA: "And I think we have each others backs, there is a level of trust there when you have a really good friend that you're sitting next to, you know if something goes wrong, or if you have a day where you don't feel good, you know your friend always has your back."> <6108 nat of laura and jodi laughing> And once the lights There's no going back. <6111 Jodi 16:59:04- 06"����vlog 8 news at 5 starts now."> <6089 Laura 15:13:04- 14"I look forward to coming to work. There's never a day where I'm like ugh I don't want to be here, with these people, I truly every single day am glad that I'm here and it's because of the people."> <6089 Jodi 15:12:38- 48"I think having a station full of people who care about you the person outside of the station, I mean that's huge."> <6051 Todd 12:03:18- 31"We have staff people who have been there for decades and they are familiar with you and so they trust you and so that is a big difference between us and everybody else. It's a weird legacy that ����vlog has had since 1955."> <6064 Shannon 14:04:51-58"You get little pieces of each other's lif"> <6056 Heckle 13:28:16- 23"It is a feeling of, kind of the satisfaction that maybe other people get from their jobs, but I would have a hard time imagining another job where you get that level of satisfaction."> <6071 Glen 14:45:23- 35"They never get to work in a place where there's family, and there's fun, and there's good hard work, and there is quality work